[79] Senate Document No. 237, 26 Con. 2d Session, A. D. 1843.
The name of the Mississippi River is derived from the Algonquin language, through the medium of the French. The term appears first in the early missionary letters from the west end of Lake Superior about 1660. Sippi, agreeably to the early French annotation of the word, signifies a river. The prefixed word Missi is an adjective denoting all, and, when applied to various waters, means the collected or assembled mass of them. The compound term is then, properly speaking, an adverb. Thus, Missi-gago, means all things; Missi-gago-gidjetod, He who has made all things--the Creator. It is a superlative expression, of which great river simply would be a most lean, impracticable, and inadequate expression. It is only symbolically that it can be called the father of American rivers, unless such sense occurs in the other Indian tongues.
Finding it impracticable to proceed higher in the search of the remote sources of the river at this time, a return from this point was determined on. The vicinity had been carefully scanned for its drift specimens, and fresh-water conchology. Wishing to carry along some further memorial of the visit, members of the party cut walking-canes in the adjoining thickets, and tied them carefully together; and at five o'clock in the afternoon (21st July) we embarked on our descent. An hour's voyage over the surface of this wide lake, with its refreshing views of northern scenery, brought us to the point where the Mississippi issues from it. Never did men ply their paddles with greater animation; and having the descent now in their favor, they proceeded eighteen miles before they sought for a spot to encamp. Twilight still served, with almost the clearness of daylight, while we spread our tents on a handsome eminence on the right-hand shore. Daylight had not yet dawned the next morning, when we resumed the descent. It was eight o'clock A. M. when we reached the border of Lake Winnipek. This name, by the way, is derived from a term heretofore given, which, having the Chippewa inflection of nouns in _ish_, graphically describes that peculiarity of its waters created by the disturbance of a clay bottom.